Flowers in Art I walked this week directly between St.
James's Park (where the flowers are very lovely) and the Palser Gallery (where the flowers are also very lovely), and in both places many characteristic types of person were to be seen—Austrian in the gallery in King Street, St. James's, Cockney beside the water in the Park. Flower painting grows steadily more popular. It is now encouraged at some of the shows by the R.H.S., and the art in England is of high merit ; but I doubt whether I ever saw flower colours more faithfully and per- suasively hit than in the exhibition by three Austrian artists of flowers, people and scenes characteristic of Austria. Frau Von Blass specialized in the flowers, and many of her paintings the camellia, orchids and fir-branch especially make de- lightful pictures, but it occurred to me that the art was especially the art of illustration, and the best flower-pictures I
know are in books. The botanist peeps out and enhances the art. Why cannot someone do for the neglected wild flowers of Western Australia and of Newfoundland what Frau Von Blass is doing for the Austrian flora ?
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